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The gaffe-prone footballer Joey Barton has been summoned before the French
Football Federation’s ethics committee after publicly describing Thiago
Silva, the Brazilian defender, as an overweight ladyboy.

His Twitter messages appalled gay rights groups, astonished the media, angered
the French football establishment and destroyed the positive image Barton
had constructed since moving to Marseilles last summer.

The player told team-mates that such insults were two a penny in British
football and that he could not understand what the fuss was about. Barton,
who has had regular run-ins with the English football authorities, appeared
unaware of the inflammatory context created by